Japanese opposition figure criticizes Takaichi's erroneous remarks on Taiwan region, urges Japan to face history

A senior figure in Japan's Social Democratic Party has strongly condemned recent comments by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi regarding China's Taiwan, calling the remarks historically erroneous and harmful to regional peace.

Hiroji Yamashiro, permanent secretary of the Social Democratic Party's National Union, said Takaichi's statements risk provoking unnecessary conflict and run counter to Japan's postwar commitment to peace.

"We are all furious," Yamashiro told China Media Group (CMG). "She is actively inviting an unnecessary war and dragging the country into a battlefield over something that should never happen. As a nation with a Peace Constitution, such actions are absolutely unacceptable."

Yamashiro stressed that Japan has long recognized the one-China principle, recalling that during the normalization of diplomatic ties in 1972, Japan acknowledged the government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal government of China and stated it "understands and respects that Taiwan is an integral part of China."

"For Takaichi to publicly make such impossible and inconceivable claims is truly outrageous," he said.

The opposition politician urged Japan to confront its history and remain vigilant against rhetoric that could push the country back toward past militarism.

"As a country that once launched such a war, do we have no reflection? No sense of pain? No sense of shame?" Yamashiro asked. He criticized Japanese textbooks for omitting the history of the Japanese military's aggression against China and the tragedies it caused, saying the government has failed to teach younger generations these truths.

Yamashiro further warned that Takaichi's suggestion, in a parliamentary setting, that Japan could consider military involvement in the Taiwan Strait seriously undermines the political foundation of China-Japan relations. Failure to correct such statements, he said, could lead to severe consequences.

"Since Japan recognizes Taiwan as part of China, the Taiwan question is China's internal affair," he said. "To intervene militarily in another country's internal affairs would be an act of aggression – pure aggression. And if Japan commits aggression, it will inevitably face counterattack."